14 Best Restaurants in Kolkata (Calcutta), India

This well-liked restaurant is known for its traditional and contemporary Bengali cuisine. Try the prawns or the hilsa (a local fish), wrapped in banana leaves and steamed in a mustard and coconut marinade. The buffet here is one of the best you can get in the city—it's a great introduction to Bengali dishes.

In a residential neighborhood to the south, this restaurant takes the best and most unique ingredients and flavors of Bengali cuisine, and gives them a contemporary twist. Crab cakes come with mustard sauce and are baked with local greens in small clay saucers, river prawns are simmered in a coconut gravy with grapes, and desserts are delicately flavored with gondhoraj, a close cousin of the kaffir lime used in Thai dishes.

This sleek, modern restaurant with massive ceilings is an expat favorite in Kolkata. As the name suggests, the menu here covers a broad variety of dishes from Japan, Mongolia, Korea, Thailand, and China, all made with ingredients sourced from its very own kitchen garden.

This local favorite serves Cantonese, Szechuan, and Indian dishes in a setting that innovatively mixes Chinese and German-chalet style. Try the crisp fried chicken served with a mild sauce, the boneless chilli chicken, or the minced lamb cooked with cubes of tofu and hot garlic sauce.

Popular with locals and tourists, the best Chinese fine-dining restaurant in the city has elegant interiors, with old mirrors, paintings, and glass pots that immediately catch the attention of the guests. Try the kung pao pork ribs, steamed scallop morsel, or the crispy lamb.

Kolkata's popular Chinese restaurant, now a national chain, is known for efficient service and spacious interiors with minimalist but comfortable furniture. Try their fish and prawn dishes or the elaborate and reasonably priced buffet.

This pretty café is always buzzing with patrons lined up for pretty-as-a-picture cupcakes, tiered cakes, quiches, and pies, all served with excellent coffee and a flourish. There's also a hearty breakfast, and a high tea, which comes with scones, finger sandwiches, and fine Darjeeling tea.

Started in 2002, this is one of the most successful chains for traditional Bengali cuisine in upscale settings. All-time favorite dishes here include river prawns cooked in coconut milk and served in tender coconut shells.

This is one of the city's oldest restaurants, with an atmosphere that harkens back to its early days in the 1960s (some of the staff may actually date from those times, too). The Chelo kebab—a simple dish plated to resemble a cello with buttered saffron rice, a fried egg, two pieces of mutton (goat) kebabs, and one chicken kebab—is wildly popular. The dining room is intimate, thanks to the small tables, with white stucco walls, Tiffany-style lamps, and soft lighting.

This restaurant serving North Indian and Bengali dishes is a tasteful replica of a rural house, complete with a courtyard, a well, dark wood details, copper curios, and metal light fixtures. The traditional Bengali kebabs are wildly popular.

Small and cozy, with minimalist furniture and plate-glass windows, this restaurant is run by a friendly, helpful staff. Don't-miss choices include prawn salad, fish-and-chips, lobster thermidor, and chilli crab.

Set in the upscale Quest Mall, Yauatcha, a well-regarded dim sum house, is known for great dumplings, tea, and seafood—in short, everything Kolkata is obsessive about. The crispy duck, prawn, and chicken shu mai (dumplings) seem to be the overall favorites.

With opulent furniture and ornate upholstery, Zaranj remains popular for its North-West Frontier cuisine and tandoori classics. The Zaranji raan, a favorite among guests, is a whole leg of goat marinated in Indian spices and slowly grilled—it takes a good 30 minutes to prepare, but it melts in your mouth.